How mathematics became mainstream

MATHEMATICS captivates those who understand its ability to bring order to chaos. But for the uninitiated the merest whiff of algebra can create confusion and frustration.

In Poor Robin’s Prophecies, Benjamin Wardhaugh tells the story of Georgian Britain’s love-hate relationship with arithmetic at a time when a mathematical education was only for the few. He looks at the period through the lens of almanac culture, in which compendiums of useful information – some serious, others jovial, all usually bedded in the astronomical – were printed yearly. It’s an inspired thesis, which allows him to link the high-end ponderings of scientists and astronomers with work-a-day practices …